Biospecific interaction analysis (BIA) of low-molecular weight DNA-bindingdrugs

DNA-binding drugs have been reported to be able to interfere with the activ ity of transcription factors in a sequence-dependent manner, leading to alt eration of transcription. This and similar effects could have important pra ctical applications in the experimental therapy of many human pathologies, including neoplastic diseases and viral infections. The analysis of the bio logical activity of DNA-binding drugs by footprinting, gel retardation, pol ymerase chain reaction, and in vitro transcription studies does not allow a real time study of binding to DNA and dissociation of the generated drugs/ DNA complexes. The recent development of biosensor technologies for biospec ific interaction analysis (BIA) enables monitoring of a variety of molecula r reactions in real-time by surface plasmon resonance (SPR). In this study, we demonstrate that molecular interactions between DNA-binding drugs (chro momycin, mithramycin, distamycin, and MEN 10567) and biotinylated target DN A probes immobilized on sensor chips is detectable by SPR technology using a commercially available biosensor. The target DNA sequences were synthetic oligonucleotides mimicking the Sp1, NF-kB, and TFIID binding sites of the long terminal repeat of the human immunodeficiency type 1 virus. The result s obtained demonstrate that mithramycin/DNA complexes are less stable than chromomycin/DNA complexes; distamycin binds to both NF-kB and TATA box olig onucleotides, but distamycin/(NF-kB) DNA complexes are not stable; the dist amycin analog MEN 10567 binds to the NF-kB mer and the generated drug/DNA c omplexes are stable. The experimental approach described in this study allo ws fast analysis of molecular interactions between DNA-binding drugs and se lected target DNA sequences. Therefore, this method could be used to identi fy new drugs exhibiting differential binding activities to selected regions of viral and eukaryotic gene promoters.